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BECOMING ONE

H e stood against the snow

It was not a gentle tumble of flakes, as with the previous stor ice and bitter cold

He didn&039;t fight it He accepted it He took it into hi one with the brutal surroundings Hisblood into whitened liainst the blow, refused to turn any of his senses off to the truth of Icewind Dale and the deadly eleners, to weak southerners, to those who could not become one with the tundra, one with the frozen north wind

He had defeated the spring, thewithout a trace

He had defeated the suentlest weather, but the ti food - and hu

His defeat of autumn neared completion, with the first cold winds and first brutal blizzards He had survived the brown bears, seeking to fatten their bellies before settling into their caves He had survived the goblins, orcs, and orogs that challenged his on the last hunt of the caribou

And he would defeat the blizzard, the wind that could freeze a man&039;s blood solid in his lie wouldn&039;t allow it His strength and determination wouldn&039;t allow it Like his father&039;s father&039;s father&039;s father before hiht the northwestern wind He didn&039;t deny the ice and the snow He took thereater than aon a high rock,around his feet, then his ankles, then his long legs The whole world became a drealistened with icicles, his heavy breath filled the air before hi pellets of ice and snow

When he at last moved, even the howl of the wind could notA deep, deep breath broke him free of the frozen natural shirt of ice, and he extended his ar powerfully as if he were grasping and crushing the storray ceiling of heavy clouds, and let out a long, low roar, a prirumble that came from his belly and denied Icewind Dale its prize

He was alive He had beaten the storm He had beaten three seasons and knew that he was ready for the fourth and hs, the snoed hi He stalked down the trails of the rocky hill, stepping sure-footed across patches bare of snow but thick with ice, and pounding right through the drifts, some taller than his nearly seven foot fra a sheet of dried old parche above the entrance to a cave he had entered once, long, long ago He kneas inhabited again, for he had seen goblins, and the greater beast they named as their chieftain

But still the cave was to be his winter hoe stone that had been placed to partially cover the entrance A dozen creatures with levers hadbut his muscles - muscles made hard by the wind and the cold - braced hioblins began to whoop and holler at the intrusion, their cries of warning turning fast to terror as the icy giant stepped into their doorway, blocking the htnificant spears He caught one goblin by the face and easily hoisted it froround with one ar off the pathetic stabs of its co, he smashed it hard into the wall of rock

The second creature squealed and fled, but he threw the first into it, taking it down in a heap

He stalked past, crushing the life out of the second goblin with a single heavy stomp to the back of its skinny neck

Several of the creatures, females, too, presented the, but they would find no iant A trio of sht in the chest, right in the thick of the curious gray fur cape he wore The spear hit bone - the skull of the creature fro under a layer of ice and snow The spear had not the weight, nor the weight behind the throw, to penetrate, and it hung there, stuck in the folds and slowing the enraged giant not at all

He caught a goblin in his huge hand, lifted it easily, and flung it across the chamber It smashed into stone and fell still

Others tried to run away, and he caught one and threw it Then another went flying With their backs to the wall, a pair of goblins found courage and turned to iant tugged the spear fro it in two, and advanced With his batons, he slapped aside the spears, furiously, wildly, with speed and agility that seeain and again, he pushed the spears aside and closed, and hethe spears out wide and reversing his hands as he lurched forward, stabbing the batons into the chest of the respective goblins He rolled his hands under and lifted the squealing creatures on the end of those batons, and sla and shrieking to the floor